


The Spider

by AugustStories



Series: Howling at the Stars [33]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Games, Mummery, Plans, Puppets on Strings, The Spider plays, Varys believes he knows everything, the Seahorses play as well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2019-06-21
Packaged: 2020-05-15 21:22:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19304086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AugustStories/pseuds/AugustStories
Summary: Lord Varys manipulates as easy as he breathes, he has nets spun over Westeros and Essos and nothing can escape them. Nothing but three seahorses intend on using him as the biggest pawn in their own game without him realizing it.





	The Spider

**Author's Note:**

> it took ages to finish this
> 
> As much as I loved the prompt given to me by ravenousreadr, this was a nightmare to actually work out. Varys is difficult to write and I actually struggled the most with writing Aurane pre reuniting with Arthur.
> 
> I still don't know if I liked this, I like the idea but maybe not how it actually turned out. But because I can't figure it out really, I decided to finish and post it anyway.

**King's Landing, Red Keep, 288 AC**

 

Once upon a time there had been a group of friends surrounding a Crown Prince who had kept the circle around him so tight and protected that no outside influence had ever been able to reach him without gaining their approval first. And in turn their loyalty and their faith in their Prince had made it nearly completely impossible to learn even the smallest things.

 

The only piece of a greater plan that Varys had ever been able to learn about Prince Rhaegar's personal agenda had been a Tourney at Harrenhall, and he had carried it to Aerys who had acted accordingly. But with the rest he had always run blind, concerning his son Aerys had trusted Arthur Dayne's word more than his Master of Whispers, Varys' task had been observing the other Lords and Knights at court.

 

Not the Prince, not his friends.

 

Maybe he should have, maybe he could have changed history back then already.

 

It was too late now though, Prince Rhaegar was dead and of the grand circle of his friends only two remained, the rest had fallen in the Rebellion or vanished. Jacaerys Velaryon had been the first, gone from one day to the next. Then Jon Connington had gotten exiled and drank himself to death in Lys. Sers Richard Lonmouth and Myles Mooton died in battle. Sers Oswell Whent and Arthur Dayne died in Dorne. Princess Elia became a victim of the sacking.

 

And for many years, Varys believed the story about Lady Ashara Dayne's suicide due to heartbreak and grief but now she was back in Dorne but out of his reach and it would be a hard effort to get a mistrusting lady like her to trust him.

 

So he was left with the one survivor who had back in the day seemed like the most useless, Varys for sure had never really paid much attention to him.

 

Aurane Waters.

 

Lucerys Velaryon's loudmouthed silver bastard, tolerated at court because Aerys had found the boy charming and because Lucerys had been one of his closest friends until the end. Aurane Waters had been the one among Rhaegar's friends with the least influence, especially once his younger older brother had left and Corlyn Velaryon shunned his bastard brother but now he was the only one left and Varys would have to make due with him.

 

Waters had vanished from the capital at the end of the Rebellion, working in service to Lord Stannis and now he was back, soon be taking Stannis' place in the Small Council because the brothers couldn't be in one place anymore. The man who had turned up at court a few weeks ago was not the same man who had left, he was hardened, focused, driven, no joker anymore. Varys would almost call him cold-heartened now, and he needed to see if he could switch 'make due with' to 'use to his advantages'.

 

“Varys,” Waters spoke up when he stepped into the courtyard where Varys had had him brought to, “I don't have much time.” Arms crossed over his chest, jaw set, eyes hard. Clad in black from head to toes, he looked remarkably like Prince Rhaegar to the untrained eye, only the coldness and the narcissist streak, those were traits you would have never seen in the Prince. Aurane Waters was confident and strong, he was where he was now because of his own hard work, not because he was still the son of so and so.

“I won't need much of your time, Captain,” Varys assured him and took in the man standing before him, there was barely anything left of the joker he had once been, stiffling arrogance had made room for grim faced determination and a lot of anger.

 

With a bit of nudging in the right direction, Varys could have a great asset in him.

 

“I was wondering if I could ask your opinion on something,” he mentioned with an air of indifference and gestured towards the benches settled under a tree not far away.

“I've never been known to not state my opinion,” Aurane deadpanned and followed him over to the tree, sitting down with the poise of someone who had had a highborn upbringing. Aurane had been raised under the tutelage of his grandmother who had once been a Targaryen Princess, no one who didn't know him would expect him to be a bastard. “Alright, speak, before I grow too impatient. I have things to do, Varys.”

 

Aurane didn't call him by that epithet that Varys had at some point acclaimed, like all of Rhaegar's friends, that 'Lord' had never once left his lips.

 

“I was wondering what you are thinking about the situation of the Targaryens in Essos,” Varys knew he wouldn't have to hide it behind fancy phrasing, there was no danger. Either Aurane reached for the rope held out to him or he would think it was a test to see to his loyalty again in this rocky times at court. “A sad thing to have those children be alone in the world.” Willem Darry was an old man, he would not live forever, Varys had to find different measures of ensuring the sibling's safety before time ran out on him.

 

“Children?” Aurane caught onto another part though, “Varys, the boy is turning three and ten in a few short months, he is a hardly a child anymore. Not with who he is. And why would it bother you anyway. Two sad lonely children alone in the world, should be the easiest then to have their broken bodies brought before the King's feet.” Bitterness crept through the cracks, hidden hatred and bone deep contempt, the Velaryons had always carried that with more grace than the Targaryens. The words were barely spoken when Aurane was smiling again, all sweet composure and pokerface, back in the day he had failed at that, one had been able to read that boy's opinion and moods like an open children's book.

 

War and loss had taught him well.

 

“If there is something you want to ask of me, Varys, speak plain.” Waters continued after a moment and he had never looked as much as his father as now, “I have neither the time for riddles, nor did I ever carry a taste for them.” That much had been true, Rhaegar's friends had always been a divided group in that, the thinkers and the ones taking action. Even if Varys could have men like Whent, Dayne or Lonmouth back, he didn't need them, he wasn't leading a war, not yet. He needed subtlety.

“I find myself wondering if one might acquire your support in helping old allies.” He phrased his words carefully because one always needed a way out if the other side reacted differently than expected.

 

“They have names, Varys. Speak their names.” Waters surprised him a little with his sharp tone but Varys was content to see that the man had immediately gotten the hint. “Viserys and Daenerys, do not hold me for a fool.” He would not, you always had to make the played one feel smarter than he was, especially people like Waters, their narcissism streak reacted better to praise than to critics.

“Of course not.” Varys agreed with him quickly and kept his body language loose, Waters could read people, maybe not as well as he could have with the right training but a bastard always saw people's intentions better than a highborn. Survival instinct.

“And I don't know what you're expecting here from me. Do I want Rhaegar's siblings safe? Yes, of fucking course, but my hands are quite bound, don't you think?” Waters showed his frustration, even if he kept his voice steady and flat, he didn't lose his cool anymore the way he had in the past. “Stannis loaded me off to the Small Council, I can barely get out on my ship more than once a fortnight. What could I possibly give in support?”

 

And there was the golden question.

 

“Your assurance for future loyalty might suffice.” He kept it vague enough that Waters frowned at him, eyes flickering around the courtyard because of course a man like him would still think this was some kind of test. And maybe it was, just not for the side he was expecting.

“Be careful, Varys, one might call this treason.” Waters reasoned and Varys smiled at him, treason was just a line in a game, a line one could step over without ever crossing it, it was a question of purpose and who had given the line.

 

“Someone might. I believe you will not, Captain Waters.”

 

“I won't stand in your way then.” Waters gave him as his only answer but Varys knew that he was all in, seagreen eyes were alight with determination. He had wrapped this fly into the net and marked it, to be used for later consumption.

“Very well.” He said in response and they inclined their heads to each other, Waters could be charismatic still, given the right moment he would be able to win people over to the right cause. If Varys slipped the right words to him, the boy wasn't as smart as he thought he was but he had the right face.

“May I take my leave then? I do have other things to do.” Waters demanded to know and Varys inclined his head to him, watched him get up and walk away, knowing that with him he had found a way into the loyalist stronghold that the Velaryons still had to be among other Crownland houses.

 

\--

 

What Varys didn't see was the smile growing on Aurane Waters' face as he slipped back into the Red Keep.

 

\--

 

**King's Landing, Harbor, 290 AC**

 

When Varys came face to face with Lord Corlyn Velaryon in the basement levels below the Red Keep, he wasn't quite sure what to make of Lucerys' oldest son. Lord Corlyn was a recluse, his brother's honoring ceremony and legitimization had been the first time that the man had stepped on the mainland in fifteen years, Varys didn't know him at all.

 

And he was more than surprised over what he saw.

 

He was the polar opposite of his brothers, not just in appearances but mostly in his character, and Varys did have to wonder where he got it from, his father it was not. Corlyn Velaryon was quiet, observing and cunning, he had a sharp mind that was bathed in black and red, so much was clear after the man raged at Varys in a storage room for the Targaryen crowns.

 

It was such a violent one eighty to the man who had communicated with the crown via letters and stood in that throne room in stoic silent at his brother's shoulder. Aurane did not do silence well, Corlyn strived in it, he saw more than what was shown, he heard more than what was said and he struck when no one expected it. Varys for sure had until that moment in the crown storage believed Corlyn Velaryon to be another stoic islander who kept out of the game because he didn't know how to play.

 

As it turned out, he had only waited for his moment.

 

And Varys might have just found his greatest ally for his plans.

 

Aurane was a quiet volcano of grumbling acceptance as his ship was flooded with Varys' little birds carrying bags and boxes into the hands of his crew who loaded the Pride of the Sea's bay with jewels and crowns. Varys ignored the younger brother sitting on the bridge stairs in order step back up to Corlyn's side where the older brother was watching the night covered capital from the bow.

“If the empty room is discovered, I will make sure to convince the Hand and the King that I brought them to a safe place after I heard the Loyalists making plans to steal them,” he told the Lord of Driftmark who didn't take his eyes off of the dark Red Keep. “No one will know.”

 

“I appreciate your cooperation, Lord Varys.”

 

The first rule of keeping the upper hand, always make people believe that you were doing something for them instead of the other way around.

 

“You're welcome, Lord Corlyn.”

 

The Velaryons would sit on these crowns like chicken did on eggs, they would protect them and the secrecy until the moment they were needed again by a new king rising for the throne. And he could be sure that the Velaryons had no aspirations on their own, as much as their blood was as dragonsinged as Robert's. The seahorses had the realm in sight, had traditions and history in sight, not power, and Varys could work so easily with that.

 

People without power hunger had no agendas to get in his way.

 

Corlyn Velaryon was going to become his biggest ally in this game of secret plans, and the parts in him who didn't yet fit it, Varys could shape. It couldn't have gone better.

 

\--

 

What Varys didn't see was the smirk that Aurane and Corlyn exchanged as he walked away from the ship.

 

Nor did he see how Aurane didn't turn the Pride of the Sea towards Driftmark once they were out of the Blackwater Bay but towards the Stormlands coast.

 

\--

 

**Driftmark, Spicetown Harbor, 294 AC**

 

Varys took three steps off the ship and onto the pier in Driftmark's main harbor and then froze because he was greeted with three men standing at the end of it, poised to welcome him. Corlyn Velaryon framed by Aurane on the left and another man on the right, but he was neither Captain Lucerys, nor Ser Laeno, nor the man's oldest son.

 

No, it was the man's brother.

 

Jacaerys Velaryon, returned from the lost.

 

And Varys' game changed within one breath.

 

Once again the seahorses surprised him and forced him to rethink his plans. Another Loyalist returned. Another friend of Rhaegar's back in the picture, everything was falling better together than Varys could hope for. Even if his plans had suffered a major setback when news broke that Viserys Targaryen had died nearly a year back, it had irked him to hear about it through the grapevine, to not have had direct immediate knowledge of it, Illyrio should have had a better eye on them.

 

Now, Varys only had a little girl to work, it could still work but it needed some adjustments and he hadn't wanted to put the effort into it while court was still not stable in King's Landing. It had taken a huge amount of patience to get through the birth of the Crown Prince and the loud violent aftermath when accusations had been flying. He pitied the child for his parents, he didn't pity Robert for the gods' curse on him.

 

“My Lords,” Varys greeted the three brothers who had always looked like the gods wanted them all to be Lucerys' sons but at the same time not give them more than two things in common. Appearance and character wise. And out of the three of them, Jacaerys had always been the wildest card, before his disappearance and even more so now, because Varys had no idea where the man had been for nearly two decades.

 

An alarming thought.

 

“Lord Varys,” Corlyn greeted him and swept a hand up towards the castle, “shall we? I believe we have much to discuss, many things had happened.”

 

They got up to the castle rather fast, no time to waste, Aurane showed rather openly that he'd rather set sails back to Dorne tonight rather than tomorrow, Varys still didn't know if this obvious dalliance with Arthur Dayne was something to be concerned about. Dayne had never been useful to him, he had no talent in games, no talent in lying and no one had been more Rhaegar's man than him, their friendship had been alarmingly co-dependent. And with that son of his now, Dayne was written off for him, and it bothered his plans greatly that Aurane had gotten involved with the man so much.

 

“As you might have heard,” Jacaerys began once they were all sitting, “word is that Viserys Targaryen has died. I am sure it has been greatly celebrated at court.” The middle brother had always been the hot-tempered one, Jacaerys did what he wanted and not what people told him to do. Varys would have to treat carefully with him, he wasn't like his brothers, he would notice the strings used to move him. “It was a step I found myself forced to to keep the siblings safe.”

 

Varys sat stunned. For a good long moment he didn't know what he should think or say. He had thought his plans to have fallen apart, to need a different way where the realm got a Targaryen Queen and not a Targaryen King. And maybe parts of him had already been happier with this situation than the one before. The little girl was still a child, easy to form.

 

“I thought you would welcome my brother's foresight,” Corlyn reacted to the silence and Varys looked to him, they had had much contact in the last months, letters sent by middle men, thoughts exchanged and Corlyn had truly become the loyalist ally Varys had needed. And he was easier to handle than Illyrio by far. “With Westeros and Essos believing Viserys to be dead, it will be much easier to keep the siblings safe and to form plans.”

“How are the siblings?” Varys turned to Jacaerys who smiled, he had more charme than Corlyn for sure but he was more dangerous in it than Aurane, though Aurane's tongue was sharper.

 

“They are well. Protected by good people in Myr. Viserys is longing for home but he understands the need to wait for the right time to strike. Daenerys has grown into a beautiful kind young girl, she learns every day.” So, he had set them into Myr, interesting move but Varys could live with that, everything but Volantis was acceptable. The war in Essos a few years back had torn apart all nets he had spun over Volantis, a fact that still bothered him greatly, he needed to find time to work on rebuilding his contacts.

 

“It is good to hear and I am relieved the siblings are safe. It was a harrowing journey for them so far.”

 

Maybe Jacaerys Velaryon could be useful for him after all. The man had more reach into Essos than his brothers and he certainly cared for the Targaryens still. It irked Varys that he didn't know for the man had been for seventeen years but he could work on finding that out while the brothers kept playing his game for him.

 

Everything was falling into place beautifully.

 

It would soon be time to bring the true heir back home.

 

\--

 

And in his great mummery show, Varys didn't realize that he was the puppet this time around.

 

Because deep in the Disputed Lands, Jace Velaryon had learned Varys' biggest secret.

 

He had learned the man's origin.

 

**Author's Note:**

> What is important for me here is to show that though Varys certainly is a cunning man with a wide spy network, he is human in the end, too. And he can't see everything and he can make mistakes and vastly underestimate people. And in a consequence become the one being played.
> 
> Varys will return in the series.


End file.
